TTS Vol 2 Ch 10.6

Gasp, gasp. 

Assemblyman Park Sangheon, watching Park Chigyeong struggle to breathe, calmly chewed on a peanut, then sighed and opened the lid of the teapot as if just remembering something.

“It seems something that shouldn’t have gone into this tea has found its way in.”

A few peanuts were floating in the tea.

Gasp, gasp. 

Park Chigyeong’s face was pale. His fists were clenched, his body trembling with the effort to breathe. The veins on his forehead bulged, as if they were about to burst.

Seeing his pale face turn red, Taeri realized what was happening. He was having trouble breathing.

Park Chigyeong couldn’t exhale or inhale. He couldn’t breathe at all.

Then why… why?

His hands, frantically trying to loosen his tie as if he were about to rip it off, became increasingly desperate. He couldn’t undo the knot, his trembling fingers missing the loop.

He abruptly stood up, knocking his chair over with a loud crash, and then stumbled and fell to his knees in front of Assemblyman Park.

Thud. The sound of his knees hitting the floor sent Taeri’s heart plummeting.

If this continues, he’s going to die. He’s really going to die.

She knew she had to go inside. She knew she had to rush in and get him out, no matter what. She knew it all too well, but even so, her feet wouldn’t move.

Do I want him to die? Am I hoping for it? She hesitated.

Good. I wish he were dead. No. What about my father if he dies? Just die now. No. Don’t die. What about my father if you die?

Her thoughts went around in circles.

Park Chigyeong could no longer even gasp for air. He looked like he was about to die, his trembling hand reaching out to grip his father’s thigh as his head drooped.

To Taeri, it looked like he was begging his father for forgiveness.

“……”

Assemblyman Park looked down at his kneeling son, his face expressionless. Then, he picked up something. The object he had taken out of the drawer earlier.

“It seems our eldest son has repented sufficiently. It’s alright now. I’ll let you breathe. I always have, haven’t I?”

Assemblyman Park bent down and jabbed the object into Park Chigyeong’s thigh. Taeri’s eyes widened.

What is that? A syringe? Is he going to kill him?

Everything she was witnessing felt surreal. She would rather believe it was a nightmare.

She was scared. Fear, a formless entity, consumed her.

Taeri turned and ran without looking back.

She ran blindly, her mind a blank slate. 

Tap, tap, tap!

Her hurried footsteps must have alerted them, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t think.

Clamping a hand over her mouth to stifle the nausea rising in her throat, she ran up the stairs, stumbling and grabbing the railing to steady herself. And then she ran again.

She ran up, wishing him dead, then ran back down, wishing him alive… She ran up and down the stairs, her conflicting emotions tearing her apart. Halfway up, she burst into tears.

Crash. 

Reaching the second floor, she scrambled into her room and locked the door, hiding herself in the darkness. She slid down the door, her back against it, and sobbed silently, covering her mouth with her hands.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and inside her hazy vision, she saw toy-like cars with their lights on, peacefully crossing the bridge.

Terror gripped her. A relentless, consuming terror.

She was terrified of the father who would do such a thing to his own son, terrified of Park Chigyeong who allowed it to happen, terrified of his mother and Sihyun, sleeping peacefully, unaware of anything.

Everything about this house was terrifying.

But what terrified her most was perhaps her own inaction.

Gasp, sob. 

Tears streamed down Taeri’s face. Crying, she took out her phone. Her trembling fingers typed a message to Seo Jungeun.

[Mom, please come get me. This place is hell.]

She hesitated, her finger hovering over the send button. 

If my mother comes here, if she finds out the truth about this house, will Assemblyman Park let us go? 

Cowardly thoughts held her back. Everything she had worked for could be ruined.

Defeated before the weight of reality, Taeri tasted yet another wave of despair and quietly rested her forehead on her knees. She felt the helplessness of her youth acutely.

She didn’t know how much time passed. Her tears had stopped, and the house remained silent.

Is he dead? What if he’s really dead? What am I going to do?

Her mind slowly began to work again.

Was there a reason why Park Sihyun had said his father and Park Chigyeong were different?

Perhaps Assemblyman Park only showed his true self to Park Chigyeong, the son who resembled him the most. Perhaps he hid his true nature behind a polished facade in front of those who couldn’t understand him.

He was, after all, a man who had deceived the public with his clean and righteous image, getting elected four times without a single scandal.

‘It seems something that shouldn’t have gone into this tea has found its way in.’

Assemblyman Park had clearly shown Park Chigyeong the peanuts in the tea. Which meant that he had suffered an anaphylactic shock.

She knew that peanut allergies could be life-threatening, depending on the severity. She’d had a friend with a severe nut allergy, so she had some knowledge about it.

That a single peanut could cause Park Chigyeong to suffocate… It was almost comical. A peanut. Just a tiny peanut.

It was so absurd, so trivial, that she couldn’t even laugh. It didn’t make sense.

But what made even less sense was Assemblyman Park Sangheon’s behavior. Peanut allergies are known to be one of the most dangerous food allergies, and no father would do that to their child.

They say that maternal love is instinctual, while paternal love is learned.

Even so, no sane parent would intentionally feed their child a food they were allergic to.

Park Chigyeong’s hesitation in picking up the teacup must have been because he had already smelled the peanuts. And yet, he drank it… which meant this wasn’t the first time.

Why did Park Chigyeong just take it? What was he so afraid of?

Satan wasn’t born among humans. He was born among Satans.

Was his father one of the reasons he held back? Was he perhaps afraid of becoming like his father?

When her thoughts reached that point, Taeri felt sorry for the man who had made her feel so pathetic. She felt a flicker of unwelcome sympathy for him.

‘An easy girl who can easily forgive an attempted murderer if he wears a decent shell.’

Park Chigyeong’s words, which had so easily defined her, were undeniably true.

Despite everything, she felt her eyes closing. She felt disgusted with herself for wanting to sleep.

She was disgusted by humanity itself.

* * * 

“…!”

She had only closed her eyes for a moment, but when she opened them, it was already bright outside, and she could see cars already speeding across the bridge.

She glanced at the clock. It was a little past 7 a.m. She hadn’t slept long.

The moment she woke up, a face flashed through her mind.

Park Chigyeong.

What happened to him? What did Assemblyman Park do to him?

Is he dead? Did Assemblyman Park dispose of his body quietly?

Does Park Chigyeong no longer exist in this world? Then what about my father? What about me? What’s going to happen to me? Will I be able to escape this hellish house today? I’ll be free from Park Chigyeong and live like I used to before. Freedom. I’ll be free.

But why… why do I feel… now that he’s gone, now that the blade lodged in my ribs has finally been removed, now that I can finally breathe… why… why does my chest ache like this?

Am I going crazy? I must be losing my mind.

Taeri gripped her hair, her gaze empty as she stared out the window.

The toy-like cars were still speeding across the bridge, seemingly at peace.

She unlocked her door and stepped out. She could hear the clatter of dishes and Gong Yunseon’s voice from downstairs. She thought she heard Sihyun laughing too, but there was no sound of Park Chigyeong or Assemblyman Park.

She looked at the door to Park Chigyeong’s bedroom across the hall. Swallowing hard, she walked towards it. She stood in front of the door, took a deep breath, and knocked. There was no response.

What if the room is empty when I open the door? 

What if he’s not downstairs either? 

What am I supposed to do then?

Her hand trembled slightly as she grasped the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the door open.

The bedroom was empty as expected. The room, including the bed, was neatly organized. As if no one lived there. 

He must be really dead. 

Despair washed over her. 

What am I supposed to do now? What am I going to do?

As if drained of strength, her hand slipped from the doorknob and her body went limp.

With a face that seemed to have lost everything in the world, Taeri stared blankly into the bedroom. Then, she heard the shuffle, shuffle, shuffle of slippers being dragged, and saw a figure come out from the dressing room.

A person with impeccably styled hair and a perfectly tailored suit, his head held arrogantly high as if flaunting his appearance. 

“What?”

It was Park Chigyeong.

“Why do you have that expression on your face so early in the morning?”

“…Huh?”

He adjusted his shirt collar and tied his snake-like tie. Looking down at Taeri, who seemed to be in a daze, he asked in a calm, steady voice,

“What time did you come home last night?”

He seemed perfectly fine. There was no trace of the vulnerable, struggling man she had seen last night.

For a moment, Taeri wondered if she had had a vivid nightmare. In fact, it made more sense to think of it as a nightmare. She had been quite drunk last night.

Yes, I must have had a nightmare. It never happened. 

Coming to that conclusion, the turmoil in her mind and heart eased in an instant.

Thank goodness. 

She wasn’t sure what she was thankful for, but she felt a sense of relief.

Taeri fidgeted with her hands behind her back as she watched him tie his tie.

“I came home a little late last night. I guess I was happy to see my friends after a long time. Finish getting ready for work. I’ll leave you to it.”

She bowed and turned to leave, her hand on the doorknob, when he spoke.

“Why do you lie so much when you’re so bad at it?”

The morning sunlight fell on Taeri’s stiff face as she turned around.

“You saw everything.”

Park Chigyeong walked towards her, still tying his tie. Taeri watched his calm yet unhesitating actions silently, her expression strained, as if her throat was constricting. He walked towards her, his face composed, and stopped in front of her.

“If you live an ordinary life, you’ll only ever be an ordinary person. That’s why you’ll never understand us, not even in death.”

“……”

“So stop trying to understand and just keep your mouth shut. Pretend you didn’t see anything, pretend you didn’t hear anything. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Isn’t that what you do best, Miss Kang Taeri?”

“…….”

“But, fuck, Taeri.”

As if suddenly annoyed, he grabbed her chin roughly. It was a truly terrible habit. Ugh, he stared intently at her wincing face and asked coldly,

“You wished I were dead, didn’t you? Is that why you ran away?”

She trembled, unable to speak. Park Chigyeong watched her silently, then smirked and nodded, as if understanding.

“Right. That makes sense. I’m always a fucking bastard, a goddamn asshole, a bad guy to you. You always wish I were dead.”

Taeri thought there must be tens of thousands of ways to express pain in this world, but she wondered if expressing it through mockery, like this man, was one of them.

He seemed like a hard, unyielding stone, as if he had buried his emotions so deep that they had fossilized. A smooth, polished stone, all impurities refined away by grief.

Taeri stood frozen, her eyes trembling as she looked at him.

“Sir, last night I…”

“Yes, the you last night. It’s all fine. Everything’s fine, but why do you keep lying to me?”

“……”

“You met with Seo Yijoon yesterday.”

Her heart sank. Not because he knew everything about her, but because she was more grateful than ever that he was alive and not dead.

There was something she hadn’t been able to say to Seo Yijoon.

This man before me is the person I hate the most in the world, and also the person I most want to understand.

What was he like as a child? Did his father abuse him from a young age? Why does his father treat him like that? Why doesn’t he fight back? What food does he really like?

If he even had a favorite food.

What does he think about? What kind of music does he like? What are his favorite movies? Does he like movies like the one we watched a few days ago? How many relationships has he had? Has he ever truly loved someone? If so, what was she like?

She realized why she hadn’t been able to say any of it.

Because it was love and hate.

Because it was complicated.

Because it was everything.